I noticed a new shop in our small town of New Braunfels, Texas and decided to see if they had any pipe supplies. I stopped in The Tobacco Haus and was happy to see they had supplies and tobacco both.

The owner, Mark, was friendly, and gave me the tour of his bulk blends. After examining his wares, I selected two to take home.

Especial De Carlos smells so good, my wife says, "it smells like you could eat it". It is easy to pack, smokes evenly and is THE smoothest tobacco I've ever tried to date. The flavor is fairly full, but no tongue bite whatsoever. I smoke it in a smaller Neerup pipe with a thick walled bowl. Even when puffing fairly hard, it does not bite.

You can feel the creaminess of the smoke on your tongue and the flavor just caresses it. A fairly strong vanilla note is followed by a hint of chocolate. My wife not only likes the smell, she often takes a puff or two when I smoke this one.